Alameda Point tour highlights toxic cleanup efforts

This year’s tour highlighting toxic cleanup efforts at Alameda Point forsook the technological whiz-bang of prior years’ cross-base bus rides for a more prosaic sight: A gaggle of Caspian terns perched on a sand bar in a restored wetland area that’s part of the 624-acre chunk of the former air station the Navy handed off to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in June.

The two dozen or so regular Point watchers who attended Saturday’s tour – dubbed the “toxic tour” by veterans of the annual two-hour bus ride – posed for a photograph. Then they got back on the bus, where several raised questions and offered comments that laid plain their continuing concerns about the adequacy of the Navy’s efforts to deal with a laundry list of toxins it dumped, spilled and buried during more than half a century on the Island, turning the base into a federal Superfund site.

This year’s tour comes at a propitious time for the Navy. The surprise announcement Saturday that it has completed its handoff of 624 acres of the Point to the VA means that the vast majority of the former Navy base is off its hands. In 2013, Alameda got 1,379 acres – which is a little less than half the land and water Alameda Point occupies – and the city has moved swiftly in its attempt to kick-start revitalization efforts.

But the 488 acres the Navy still holds may present some of the most intractable and controversial cleanup challenges it faces. A conveyance map released by the city in 2013 showed Alameda taking title to the rest of the Point acreage it expects to get from the Navy by 2019; a program review offered Saturday showed the cleanup of some parts of the Point taking place through 2021 and beyond.